290 DICECIOUS AND Chap. VU. 



that some of the bushes were in function exclusively 

 males. 



Thirteen bushes growing near one another in a 

 hedge consisted of eight females quite destitute of 

 pollen and of five hermaphrodites with well-developed 

 anthers. In the autumn the eight females were well 

 covered with fruit, excepting one, which bore only a 

 moderate number. Of the five hermaphrodites, one 

 bore a dozen or two fruits, and the remaining four 

 bushes several ^ozen ; but their number was as nothing 

 compared with those on the female bushes, for a single 

 branch, between two and three, feet in length, from 

 one of the latter, yielded more than any one of the 

 hermaphrodite bushes. The difference in the amount 

 of fruit produced by the two sets of bushes is all the 

 more striking, as from the sketches above given it is 

 obvious that the stigmas of the poUeniferous flowers 

 can hardly fail to receive their own pollen ; whilst the 

 fertilisation of the female flowers depends on pollen 

 being brought to them by flies and the smaller 

 Hymenoptera, which are far from being such efficient 

 carriers as bees. 



I now determined to observe more carefully during 

 successive seasons some bushes growing in another 

 place about a mile distant. As the female bushes 

 were so highly productive, I marked only two of them 

 with the letters A and B, and five poUeniferous bushes 

 with the letters to Gr. I may premise that the 

 year 1865 was highly favourable for the fruiting of all 

 the bushes, especially for the poUeniferous ones, some 

 of which were quite barren except under such favour- 

 able conditions. The season of 1864 was unfavourable. 

 In 1863 the female A produced " some fruit ;" in 1864 

 only 9 ; and in 1865, 97 fruit. The female B in 1863 

 was " covered with fruit ;" in 1864 it bore 28 ; and in 



